


You Used What As A Bookmark?

by swanqueenismagic



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Library AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 21:45:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7285867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swanqueenismagic/pseuds/swanqueenismagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lexa works in a library, and Clarke's forgetfulness gets her into dumb situations. I suck at summaries basically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Used What As A Bookmark?

"Those will be due back On July 7th," Lexa started thinking about how fast the first half of the year had passed as she slid the books across the counter of the circulation desk to the patron. 

"Thank you young lady," replied the elderly woman. Mrs. Campbell was one of Lexa's favorite patrons. The older woman had introduced herself to Lexa on her first day of work at the library with, "Ah look, a new face! Do you know of any good romance novels?" Lexa, as it turns out knew nothing about romance novels. She tended to avoid them because of their lack of diversity, and she frankly had no interest in reading about straight people falling in love over and over again. But after her first encounter with Mrs. Campbell she had made a point of taking note of any interesting romance novels that she came across while shelving books. The elderly lady loved them, and Lexa liked to see her face light up with excitement when she gave her the list of interesting romance novels that she'd been compiling for the older woman all week long. 

"It's my pleasure Mrs. Campbell, have a good evening." 

"You too dear, don't get yourself into any trouble," winked Mrs. Campbell as she turned with her book bag and shuffled towards the door. 

Lexa sighed and smiled to herself, there was no danger in that happening. She was not much of a people person, and people her own age especially tended to make her nervous. 

Wednesday nights at the library were generally pretty slow, and Lexa had already checked the book return bins and shelved all of the incoming material. She was about to turn back to the book she was reading when the library phone rang. 

"Brookwood Public Library, how may I help you?" 

The gravely voice on the other end of the call belonged to a young woman, "Yeah, hi, um I returned a book, that I had checked out for my English class, this morning and I was wondering if it's still there." 

Lexa groaned internally, great, a college student. 

"I can check the shelf for it, what's the title?" 

"The Symposium by Aristotle." 

"All right, I'm going to put you on hold and go see if I can find it." 

"Great, thanks!" 

Lexa reached over and pressed the red hold button and set the receiver down. She pushed out of her chair, stretching her stiff joints before heading off towards the section where she knew the book would be. Lexa scanned the shelves for the book's call number, but it wasn't there. She walked back over to the computer monitor on the circulation desk and quickly looked up the book's record in the library database. 

Ah, so that was the problem. 

"Ma'am?" She said as she picked the phone up again. 

"No need to call me ma'am," replied the girl on the phone cheekily, "at the ripe old age of 22 I don’t think I've reached 'ma'am' status yet." 

"Okay, well the book isn't here. I looked it up in our system and another patron had a hold placed on it. They came and picked up the book about three hours ago." 

"Fuck! Shit, I'm sorry. Oh man, sorry, I'm really bad at censoring myself, I didn't mean to curse at you." 

Lexa smirked as the girl stuttered through her apology, "It's all right, I'm not that great at censoring myself either." 

"Is there any way that I could get the name or phone number of the other person who checked out the book? It's really important." 

"I'm sorry, we can't give out our patrons' personal information. If you need the book for class, the used bookstore down the road usually has a few copies." 

"No, I really need this particular copy of the book. Shit, this is so embarrassing. I might have possibly used my driver's license as a bookmark, and returned the book with the  
driver's license still in it." 

Lexa burst out laughing and then deadpanned, "You seriously used your ID as a bookmark? You know we hand out free book marks here at the desk right?" 

"Yeah, yeah I know I'm an idiot laugh it up. I was in a hurry and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Damn, this really blows." 

"Yeah it does, I'm sorry. We have a lost and found sheet here, I can write down your information and we'll call you if it turns up." 

"That'd be great, thanks," Lexa heard the other woman sigh as she rattled off her phone number. 

"I'm going to need a name to go with that phone number so I know who I'm calling if we find your driver's license." 

"Right, yeah. It's Clarke, Clarke Griffin." 

That's certainly a unique name, thought Lexa as she jotted it down on the list. 

"I think you have me at a disadvantage, mysterious library employee," quipped Clarke, "You know my name but I don't know yours." 

Lexa rolled her eyes, "Lexa Woods." 

"Well, Lexa Woods, thank you for your help with my ridiculous problem, and I'm sorry that I took up so much of your time." 

"It's no problem, really, it's been a quiet night." 

"Well thank you anyways, I really appreciate it." 

Lexa heard the dial tone signaling that the call had been ended. Her coworkers were never going to believe her when she told them about this. She chuckled to herself, what kind of an idiot used their ID as a bookmark and forgot about it? 

********** 

A gorgeous idiot, that's who. 

Lexa hadn't been able to stop thinking about that phone call, and every day when she checked the book return bins she'd kept her eye out for a certain copy of 'The Symposium' but with no luck. It had been nearly two weeks, when she came in for her evening shift. Her coworker, Raven, grimaced at her as she gathered up her things to leave, "Sorry that I'm leaving you with so many books to shelve. Some lady just came in her with her eight kids and returned half the library." 

"It's not a problem," mumbled Lexa, "Evening shifts are usually quiet so it'll give me something to do." 

"Cheers, dude. I'll see you tomorrow." 

Lexa sighed as she began sorting through the mountain of books that needed to be shelved, but one of them caught her eye. She picked it up and riffled through it's pages, sure enough a plastic ID card fell out onto the floor. 

A brief phone call and a two hour wait later Lexa was staring in shocked silence at the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. She was a few inches shorter than Lexa with wavy blonde hair that fell just past her collar bones and the bluest eyes that she'd ever seen. 

"Lexa?" Asked the girl tentatively. 

Shit, Woods, you're gaping at the poor girl, pull your gay ass together. 

"Y-yeah. You're Clarke?" 

"Yep, that'd be me," the blonde girl beamed at her. 

"You don't look like the picture on this driver's license at all." 

Clarke raised an eyebrow in amusement. 

"Not that I've been looking at it or anything. I mean, I did of course look at it to make sure that it said 'Clarke Griffin' so I saw the picture obviously. I just didn't expect you to be so pretty...." Lexa's cheeks turned red. 

Clarke smirked at the fumbling brunette, "Yeah, that picture is almost four years old, and I look like a grouchy troll because I'd been waiting at the DMV for like six hours before they took it. Plus, the super short hair cut really didn't work for me," the blonde laughed. 

"Well, here's your bookmark back," chuckled Lexa as she passed the ID across the desk. Clarke laughed and their hands brushed as she took the driver's license from Lexa. 

"I didn't know the library had such an attractive staff or I definitely would have come in here more often." 

Lexa blushed, "That's very forward of you." 

"Oh please, you've been checking me out since the minute I walked in here," the blonde leaned in a little closer "and when I see something I want I go after it." 

Lexa swallowed, "At least buy a girl dinner first." 

Clarke laughed "I was thinking more along the lines of coffee. I'd like to get to know the pretty girl who saved me from a miserable day at the DMV trying to apply for a new license. That shit is a pain in the ass. Are you busy tonight? There's this awesome café not too far from here, they have great scones." 

Lexa glanced up at the large clock on the wall, "The library closes in 15 minutes, and I don’t have any plans for the night." 

"Great! I'll wait outside so I won't be in the way while you close up." 

"Sounds good, I'll see you soon." 

Lexa went through the closing duties faster than ever, and spent the last few minutes staring at the clock willing the hands to move faster. 

At 8:00 p.m. sharp Lexa stepped out into the chill night air, wrapping her cardigan tighter around herself. As she turned and locked the library's front door she heard a voice from behind her, "Is it like an unspoken rule that all librarians have to wear cardigans to work?" 

Lexa smiled as she turned and saw Clarke walking towards her, pretty blue eyes flashing in amusement. 

Lexa smiled, "I'm not a librarian, I just work in a library." 

"You're wearing glasses and a cardigan, that officially makes you a librarian. Sorry, I don't make the rules." 

Lexa laughed, "My coworkers, who are actually librarians, won't be very happy when they hear that they wasted eight years on school when all they needed was a cardigan. Are we just going to stand here all night, or are we going to get coffee?" 

Clarke intertwined her fingers with Lexa's and gently pulled her down the sidewalk, "Prepare yourself for the best scones in the world." 

"That's a pretty high bar you're setting." 

"I hope it lives up to your expectations." 

Lexa smiled, "I'm sure it will."

**Author's Note:**

> I work in a library, and the "patron calls and says that they used their ID as a bookmark and oh shit the book is gone now" actually happened to me. The cute gay stuff, however, did not. I've never written anything like this so please be gentle with your criticism. Thanks for reading!


End file.
